Smells and Bells

We are doing commodity-chain presentations in my Sociology class, and one presentation was on vinyl records. While the presentation itself had nothing much to do with our class, the history of the vinyl record caught my interest and started me thinking about the connection between sound and touch. Vinyl records were in their heyday from about 1930 to the 1980's, and they are still quite popular today. The idea behind their invention was to get longer playing music available to the public. I don't want to get too deep into the technicalities, because I don't quite understand the significance of the rpm's, although I know that is the rate of rotation that produces the noise; I want to get into why vinyl records really became popular. Some would say it is because of the scratchy, crackly, velvety, smooth, warm, full sound. Others might say it is the tangibility of the actual records. You can organize your records alphabetically, by the colors on the jacket sleeve, b...

The ritual I did with different kinds of fruits on the first day of class comes a "seder" for Tu B'Shvat ("The 15th of Sh'vat" - the Jewish New Year for the Trees).  I wrote a short description of this text in the Jewish food blog The Jew and the Carrot here: The Original Tu B’Shvat Seder: 'Pri Etz Hadar' According to what we've read in Diane Ackerman's Natural History of The Senses , everything we know about the world we live in is mediated to us through our senses.  But what in particular do are senses "tell" us that is so important to know? Our senses alert us to what is food, who would be a good mate, and predators that might be out to get us. Our senses give us pleasurable rewards presumably for what is good for us to smell, touch, taste, hear, and see. And we experience disgust or pain for things that are presumably bad for us. However, it's also possible that not everything that feels pleasurable to us is alwa...